Hi guys,
I opened another thread because I saw the other regards windows.

I've created a usb live of tahr64-6.0.5 from a linux mint cinnamon laptop using with unetbootin.
At the boot my bios recognise the usb, but it won't boot in puppy, but the normal mint.
I'm able to use other live distro, don't know what's wrong with this one.
I also format the usb with dd because I thought it was a usb problem, but nothing.

So Unetbootin has put Puppy onto the stick but it will not boot. A few suggestions:
1. Use gparted to make the USB bootable
2. You may have to disable secure boot on the laptop, since many will not boot to a USBs because of a security issue. Unetbootin does not cover this.

Gordie.
I am not sure why the comment about dd. However, it is not used for formatting hard drives. Any formatting type of action it does is by virtue that it writes whatever it has been copying and that will include any file system.

Your use of unetbootin is absolute fine for you on your machine. What I was saying is that modern Windows machines have a UEFI/BIOS arrangement that stops the bootloader on the USB loading the OS unless it has been signed by MS - it is called secure boot. You can get around this by disabling this feature on the PC or laptop.
As it happens some Distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint and even Fatdog have their OS's signed off and can boot even when the feature is enabled. Now I don't know what machine overkill22 is trying to boot with his USB but if its one like I have described then he will need to disable the secure boot feature to work with Puppy installed on the USB by unetbootin.

You posted while I was making some revisions to the below. Your original response got me thinking.

Hi overkill22,

Is it possible that your computer uses the (U)efi boot mechanism? That would be the case if it was built to run Windows 8 or above, a Mac (and perhaps Fedora or some other "Big Linux" distro) within the couple of years. If so, Unetbootin alone will not produce a USB-Key which will boot Tahrpup64. That's because Tahrpup64 wasn't designed to boot from a computer using that mechanism. It can be, but takes some doing. Skip nearly to the end of the post. But, perhaps something else went wrong.

Your post it reminded me that I've been meaning to explore the question “Whether Unetbootin run under a different Linux could create a bootable Puppy Linux”. It did, but I'll mention the rough-spots which had to be overcome. For those interested in ‘just getting to it’ I’ve bolded that. You can skip the rest.
DON’T DO THIS: In preparation for the effort I did the following. Running Puppy, I used gparted to format the USB-Key as Fat32 and set its flag to be bootable. I also copied the Xenialpup64-7.0.8.5-uefi.iso into my Home/Download folder in LinuxMint Sarah. NEITHER OF THESE STEPS WERE NECESSARY and, in fact, BOTH WERE COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE.

Booting into LinuxMint I discovered that gparted had already been installed. If it had not been, as you know, you'd have to enter your password to install it. In fact, installing Unetbootin and opening both Unetbootin and gparted also required root privileges.

I don't recall which, Unetbootin or gparted –I think gparted, complained about the absence of some application necessary to deal with/create? some type of formatting (Ext-something). However, believing it only pertained if I intended to reformat the hard-drive, and as I was only concerned with the USB-Key, I chose not to install the recommended application.

Unetbootin did not recognize the USB-Key. [Perhaps this was because, under Puppy, I had partitioned the Key to have a first (Fat32) partition and a 2nd (Linux Ext3) partition. Frugal Puppies are more versatile if run from a Linux Formatted partition and, after creating a SaveFile/Folder, will treat the partition on which the SaveFile/Folder is located as that from which it is being run. So my plan had been to install Xenialpup64 to the first, Fat32, partition, but create its SaveFile/Folder on the 2nd (Linux Formatted) partition].

So I used LinuxMint's gparted to delete the USB-Key's partitions and reformat it as one Fat32-formatted drive. And set its flag to bootable.

Note, in order for gparted to alter partitions, they must be unmounted. But after exiting gparted, you have to mount the USB-Key for Unetbootin to work with it.

Unetbootin now recognized the USB-Key. Unetbootin offers to download the distro you want. But, having already downloaded it, I chose to use an ISO image –in the ‘Box’ to the right of the radio-button named “Diskimage” and Left-clicked the Box with 3 dots to the far left. A ‘file-manager’ panel opened. It proved easier to locate the ISO I had on the hard-drive than to maneuver and open Home/Downloads. Having selected the ISO, I clicked ‘OK”. Unetbootin ran and notified me that it was finished.

I rebooted with the USB-Key plugged in. My computer is configured to attempt to boot from a USB-port before searching for bootable systems on the hard-drive. Xenialpup64 booted to desktop.

The reason I wanted to explore this issue is that I wasn’t certain which bootloader Unetbootin would install onto the USB-Key or how it would handle a Puppy’s ISO. Grub2 –the bootloader now standard for most link distributions-- can boot Puppies either by reading its ISO directly, or if the necessary files within its ISO have been copied to a folder, by executing Puppies initrd from that folder-- but it doesn’t automatically create the custom configuration necessary to boot either way.

As indicated by the attached screenshot, I think the bootloader Unetbootin uses is syslinux*. Unetbootin read Puppy’s ISO and copied its contents to the root of the USB-Key. Most importantly, it copied xenialpup64’s initrd, vmlinuz and efi.img. I’m not sure how syslinux works as it writes cfg files for grub, isolinux and syslinux. Opening all of those in a text editor revealed calls to initrd and vmlinuz from each. An efi.img must be present as a computer using the (U)efi boot mechanism will not boot an operating system lacking one (if you haven’t previously done some workarounds).

I don’t have an (U)efi computer. So, while I think the Xenialpup64 Unetbootin installed to the USB-Key should boot from one I have no way of checking.

mikesLr

* I've used Unetbootin in the past. But never explored the bootloader it installs. I think that to be syslinux. But correct me if I'm wrong. And does anyone know what boot arguments can be employed and HOW to do so whatever that bootloader may be?

Like you I don't have a UEFI laptop with Windows 8/10 on. I have UEFI motherboards and Puppy installed to a USB by whatever means will happily boot on them. Although they were designed to be used with Windows the secure boot feature was never inserted because they never came as a set with Windows pre-installed. I have a Chromebook on which the ChromeOS has been taken out and it nearly happily boots anything I want. Anyhow, like you, I can't check how booting goes on Windows 8+ machines.

So Unetbootin has put Puppy onto the stick but it will not boot. A few suggestions:
1. Use gparted to make the USB bootable
2. You may have to disable secure boot on the laptop, since many will not boot to a USBs because of a security issue. Unetbootin does not cover this.

the step I took were:
1. completely erase the USB with dd
2. format with gparted in fat32
3. install iso with unetbootin
4. flag the usb as boot with gparted

The secure boot is already disabled on my laptop. I'm actually able to boot other live distro on the same laptop. It is just this Puppy that won't boot and I'm not able to figure out why.

the tahr64-6.0.6-uefi.iso is not booting either.
I had to boot using the bootmanager from another live distro, and booted on puppy, but puppy was not showing properly as all the menus and windows were empty.

Man you have a problem don't you? The tahr64-6.0.5.iso should boot. It boots on my computer.

The error you show is one I get when the computer is confused and expects to find puppy files on a cd/dvd and I am trying to boot a usb stick.
Anyway, I only resort to unetbootin when all else fails. It really is my last resort when wanting to make puppy boot from a usb stick.

What I use is dd and it works well for me. From my Slackware computer I open a terminal in the folder containing my iso and paste AS ROOT this command:

Unetbootin does not know exactly how Puppy works and tries to set it up like other Linux OPS.

Try this:

Look on the flash drive for the file syslinux.cfg. If it contains the clause "pmedia=cd" or something else, change it to "pmedia=usbflash".

Example:
syslinux.cfg

Code:

default puppy
display boot.msg
prompt 1
timeout 50

F1 boot.msg
F2 help.msg
F3 help2.msg

label puppy
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.gz pmedia=cd

Also, that image you posted. I have gotten about the same thing, when I have only rebooted the computer.
Usually a complete power off.
Keep off 1 minute to make sure all memory is cleared.
Power on and bootup.
Usually fixes the problem._________________I have found, in trying to help people, that the things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected

Man you have a problem don't you? The tahr64-6.0.5.iso should boot. It boots on my computer.

The error you show is one I get when the computer is confused and expects to find puppy files on a cd/dvd and I am trying to boot a usb stick.
Anyway, I only resort to unetbootin when all else fails. It really is my last resort when wanting to make puppy boot from a usb stick.

What I use is dd and it works well for me. From my Slackware computer I open a terminal in the folder containing my iso and paste AS ROOT this command:

Unetbootin does not know exactly how Puppy works and tries to set it up like other Linux OPS.

Try this:

Look on the flash drive for the file syslinux.cfg. If it contains the clause "pmedia=cd" or something else, change it to "pmedia=usbflash".

Example:
syslinux.cfg

Code:

default puppy
display boot.msg
prompt 1
timeout 50

F1 boot.msg
F2 help.msg
F3 help2.msg

label puppy
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.gz pmedia=cd

Also, that image you posted. I have gotten about the same thing, when I have only rebooted the computer.
Usually a complete power off.
Keep off 1 minute to make sure all memory is cleared.
Power on and bootup.
Usually fixes the problem.

It totally make sense. I've changed it as you said, but no luck with the boot. This time I can see the usb from the bios, but after I select it, it doesn't start puppy but my usual mint.

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